Accenture – from "Accent on the future". The name Accenture was proposed by a company employee in Norway as part of an internal name finding process (BrandStorming). Before 1 January 2001, the company was called Andersen Consulting.[12]

Acer – born as Multitech International in 1976, the company changed its name to Acer in 1987; the Latin word for “sharp, acute, able and facile”

Adecco – named from the merger of Swiss staffing company Adia with French staffing company Ecco[13]

Adidas – from the name of the founder Adolf (Adi) Dassler.[14] Adolf and his brother Rudolf Dassler split the original company, Gebrüder Dassler Schuhfabrik (Dassler Brothers Shoe Factory), with Rudolf founding Puma.

Alps Electric/Alpine Electronics – Katsutaro Kataoka founded Kataoka Electronics in a suburb of Tokyo in 1947. A subsidiary was established in the province of Tohoku, also known as the Tohoku Alps, as Tohoku Alps Co. Ltd. When Kataoka was seeking investment during the 1960s, he found that foreigners had difficulty pronouncing "Kataoka," and renamed his firm Alps Electric. Alpine Electronics was originally named Alps-Motorola as a joint venture in the Japanese car audio market and the Alpine name was adopted after Motorola divested its stake in 1978.

Alstom – set up as Alsthom in 1928 by Société Alsacienne de Constructions Mécaniques and Compagnie Française Thomson-Houston, it changed the spelling to Alstom in 1997.

Amazon.com – founder Jeff Bezos renamed the company "Amazon" (from the earlier name of Cadabra.com) after the world's most voluminous river, the Amazon. He saw the potential for a larger volume of sales in an online (as opposed to a bricks and mortar) bookstore. (Alternative: Amazon was chosen to cash in on the popularity of Yahoo, which listed entries alphabetically.)

Amdahl Corporation – American mainframe computer company named after its founder, Dr. Gene Amdahl, formerly of IBM. It was taken over by Fujitsu in 1997.

Amiga Corporation – The original developers of the 16-bit Amiga computer chose the name, which means a 'female friend' in Spanish and Portuguese, because it sounded friendly, and because it came before rivals (Apple Inc. and Atari) alphabetically.[24]

Antrix Corporation Limited — The business and marketing arm of Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO). The name "Antrix" is an anglicized version of Antariksh, from the Sanskrit word for "space" or "sky".

AOL – from America Online. The company was founded in 1983 as Quantum Computer Services.

Apache – according to the project's 1997 FAQ: "The Apache group was formed around a number of people who provided patch files that had been written for NCSA httpd 1.3. The result after combining them was A PAtCHy server."[26]

Apple – For the favorite fruit of co-founder Steve Jobs and/or for the time he worked at an apple orchard, and to distance itself from the cold, unapproachable, complicated imagery created by other computer companies at the time – which had names such as IBM, DEC, and Cincom

Apricot Computers – early UK-based microcomputer company founded by ACT (Applied Computer Techniques), a business software and services supplier. The company wanted a "fruity" name (Apple and Acorn were popular brands) that included the letters A, C and T. Apricot fit the bill.

Arby's – the enunciation of the initials of its founders, the Raffel Brothers. The partners wanted to use the name Big Tex, but were unsuccessful in negotiating with the Akron businessman who was already using the name. So, Forrest said, "We came up with Arby's, which stands for R.B., the initials of Raffel Brothers, although I guess customers might think the initials stand for roast beef."

Arcelor – created in 2001 by a merger of Arbed (Luxembourg), Aceralia (Spain) and Usinor (France) with the ambition of becoming a major player in the steel industry.

Areva – named from the region of Ávila in northern Spain, location of the Arevalo abbey. Arevalo was shorted to AREVA.

Aricent – communications software company name created in 2006 by combining two words "arise" and "ascent".

Arm & Hammer – based on the arm and hammer of Vulcan, the Roman god of fire and metalworking. It was previously the logo of the Vulcan Spice Mills in Brooklyn. When James Church, the son of Church & Dwight founder Austin Church, came to Church and Dwight from Vulcan Spice Mills, he brought the logo with him.[27]

ARM Limited – named after the microprocessor developed by small UK company Acorn as a successor to the 6502 used in its BBC Microcomputer. ARM originally stood for Acorn Risc Machine. When the company was spun off with backing from Apple and VTI, this was changed to Advanced Risc Machines.

ARP – company that made analog synthesizers in the 1970s, named after founder Alan Robert Pearlman

Artis – a zoo in Amsterdam; named from the Latin phrase Natura Artis Magistra, or "Nature is Art's Teacher"

Asda – Asda Stores Limited was founded as Associated Dairies & Farm Stores Ltd in 1949. However, the formation of the Asda name occurred in 1965 with the merger of the Asquith chain of three supermarkets and Associated Dairies; it is an abbreviation of Asquith and Dairies, a large UK supermarket chain that is now a subsidiary of Walmart.

ASICS – an acronym for Anima Sana In Corpore Sano, which, translated from Latin, means "Healthy soul in a healthy body". Originally the citation is mens sana in corpore sano, but MSICS does not sound as good.

Asus – named after Pegasus, the winged horse of Greek mythology. The first three letters of the word were dropped to get a high position in alphabetical listings. An Asus company named Pegatron, using the spare letters, was spun off in 2008.[28]

AT&T – the American Telephone and Telegraph Corporation officially changed its name to AT&T in the 1990s.

Atari – named from the board game Go. "Atari" is a Japanese word to describe a position where an opponent's stones are in danger of being captured. It is similar, though not identical, to "check" in chess. The original games company was American but wanted a Japanese-sounding name.

ATI – founded in Canada as Array Technologies Industry and taken over by AMD in 2006.

ATS – Auto Technik Spezialerzeugnisse, a German company producing light alloy wheels and motor parts, which ran its own Formula 1 racing team in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Audi – Latin translation of the German name "Horch". The founder August Horch left the company after five years, but still wanted to manufacture cars. Since the original "Horch" company was still there, he called his new company Audi, the Latin form of his last name. In English it is "hark".

Bang & Olufsen – from the names of its founders, Peter Bang and Svend Olufsen, who met at a school of engineering in Denmark.

BAPE – A Bathing Ape is a cult clothing company founded by Tomoaki "Nigo" Nagao in 1993.[30] The name is derived from a Japanese saying, "A Bathing Ape in Lukewarm Water", which Nigo says is "a reference to the young generation being spoiled, pampered and too complacent."[31]

BASF – from Badische Anilin und Soda Fabriken. Anilin and soda were the first products. "Badisch" refers to the location in the state of Baden, Germany (Black Forest region).

Ben & Jerry's – named after Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, who founded an ice cream parlor in 1978 after completing a correspondence course on ice cream making from Pennsylvania State University. The company, Ben & Jerry's Homemade Holdings, Inc. was later taken over by Unilever.

BlackBerry – the first device produced by the company originally known as Research In Motion (below) was a two-way pager; the BlackBerry name was chosen because of the resemblance between the keyboard buttons and the drupelets that form the blackberry fruit. The company rebranded itself as BlackBerry in 2013.

Blaupunkt – Blaupunkt ("Blue dot") was founded in 1923 under the name "Ideal". Its core business was the manufacturing of headphones. If the headphones came through quality tests, the company would give the headphones a blue dot. The headphones quickly became known as the blue dots or blaue Punkte. The quality symbol would become a trademark and the trademark would become the company name in 1938.

Blizzard Entertainment - videogame company founded in 1991 as Silicon & Synapse, it briefly changed its name to Chaos Studios (1993–94),[34] before discovering there was already a company using the Chaos name. It picked Blizzard from the dictionary.

Canon – originally (1933) "Precision Optical Instruments Laboratory", the new name (1935) derived from the name of the company's first camera, the Kwanon, in turn named after the Japanese name of the Buddhist bodhisattva of mercy.

Capcom – Capsule Computers, the former name of the company and how they described the arcade machines they manufactured at the time

Carrefour – chain of supermarkets and hypermarkets which started with a store near a crossroads (carrefour in French) in Annecy

Casio – from the name of its founder, Kashio Tadao, who had set up the company Kashio Seisakujo as a subcontractor factory

Caterpillar – originally Holt Tractor Co, merged with Best Tractor Co. in 1925. A company photographer exclaimed aloud of a Holt tractor that the tracks' movement resembled a caterpillar moving along the ground. The name stuck.

Cathay Pacific Airways Limited – The airline was founded on 24 September 1946 by American Roy C. Farrell and Australian Sydney H. de Kantzow, with each man putting up HK$1 to register the airline. They named it Cathay Pacific because Cathay was the ancient name given to China; and Pacific because Farrell speculated that they would one day fly across the Pacific.

CGI Group – from the first letters of Information Management Consultant in French (Conseillers en Gestion et Informatique)

Chello – a Dutch internet service provider, its name was originally pronounced 'say hello' (in Dutch the letter C at the beginning of a word is pronounced 'say'). This did not catch on and now it is pronounced "cello" (as in the stringed instrument).

Chevrolet – named after company co-founder Louis Chevrolet, a Swiss-born auto racer. The company was merged into General Motors in 1917 and survives only as a brand name.

Ciba Geigy – CIBA, named from Chemical Industry Basel (after Basel in Switzerland), merged with a company named after its founder Johann Rudolf Geigy-Merian. It became Novartis (below) after a merger with Sandoz.

CiCi's Pizza – from the first letters of the last names of the founders of the franchise (Joe Croce and Mike Cole)

Cigna – CIGNA was formed in 1982 through the combination of Insurance Company of North America (INA) and Connecticut General (CG). The name is a combination of the letters of the predecessor companies, CG and INA.[37]

Cincom – originally called United Computer Systems, which was similar to several other software and services companies of the day. Two of the three founders visited Philco (Philadelphia Company), and this inspired them to create a new company name derived from Cincinnati (where it was based) and Computer (its business).

Citroën – named after André-Gustave Citroën (1878–1935), a French entrepreneur of Dutch descent. He was the fifth and last child of the Dutch Jewish diamond merchant Levie Citroen and Mazra Kleinmann (of Warsaw, Poland). The Citroen family moved to Paris from Amsterdam in 1873 where the name changed to Citroën.

CKX, Inc. – named from "Content is King", with the X from founder Robert F.X. Sillerman.[38] Other Sillerman companies include SFX Entertainment and FXM Asset Management.

Clarion – named after the "bugle-like wind instrument used in ancient Greece," says the company,[39] which wanted a name English speakers would find easy to remember. It was founded in Japan in 1940 as Hakusan Wireless Electric Company, making radios, and became Teikoku Dempa after merging with Takizawa Wireless Electric Industries in 1943.[40]

Colgate-Palmolive – formed from a merger of soap manufacturers Colgate & Company and Palmolive-Peet. Peet was dropped in 1953. Colgate was named after William Colgate, an English immigrant, who set up a starch, soap and candle business in New York City in 1806. Palmolive was named for the two oils (Palm and Olive) used in its manufacture.

Compaq – from computer and "pack" to denote a small integral object; or: Compatibility And Quality; or: from the company's first product, the very compactCompaq Portable

COMSAT – a contraction of communications satellites. This American digital telecommunications and satellite company was founded during the era of U.S. President John F. Kennedy era to develop the technology.

Daewoo – company founder Kim Woo Chong called it Daewoo which means "Great House" or "Great Universe" in Korean

DAF Trucks – from 1932 the company's name was Van Doorne's Aanhangwagen Fabriek (Van Doorne's Trailer Factory). In 1949 the company started making trucks, trailers and buses and changed the name into Van Doorne's Automobiel Fabriek (Van Doorne's Automobile Factory).

Daihatsu – the first kanji from "Osaka" (大坂, the kanji is here pronounced dai) and "engine" (発動機, the first kanji is hatsu). Engine manufacturers were listed on the Tokyo and Osaka Stock Exchanges, and their names shortened to the first kanji. (The company listed on the Tokyo exchange is Tohatsu.)

Danone (Dannon in the U.S.) – Isaac Carasso in Barcelona made his first yogurts with the nickname of his first son Daniel (DAN-ONE)

Dassault Aviation – the origins of the company go back to 1929 with SAAMB (Société des Avions Marcel Bloch), named after its founder Marcel Bloch (1892-1986). Bloch changed his name to Marcel Dassault in 1949. Dassault was derived from char d'assaut (French for "assault wagon" or battle tank), the codename that his brother had used in the French resistance.[43]

Datsun – first called DAT, from the initials of its financiers Den, Aoyama and Takeuchi. Soon changed to DATSON to imply a smaller version of their original car, then (as SON can mean "loss" in Japanese) again to DATSUN when they were acquired by Nissan.

Debian – project founder Ian Murdock named it after himself and his girlfriend, Debra.

DEC – Digital Equipment Corporation, a pioneering American minicomputer manufacturer founded by Ken Olsen and taken over by Compaq, before Compaq was merged into Hewlett-Packard (HP). It was generally called DEC ("deck"), but later tried to rebrand itself as Digital.

DEKA – named after its founder Dean Kamen, developer of the Segway, iBOT, HomeChoice Dialysis and other products.

Delhaize – named after its founders, Jules Delhaize and his brothers, who originated from Charleroi (Belgium). They opened the first European self-service "supermarket" in Ixelles/Elsene, a Brussels borough.

Dell – named after its founder, Michael Dell. The company changed its name from Dell Computer in 2003.

DHL – named after its founders, Adrian Dalsey, Larry Hillblom, and Robert Lynn. DHL was taken over by the German post office and both now operate under the group name Deutsche Post DHL.

Dick's Sporting Goods – named after its founder, Dick Stack, who opened a bait and tackle shop in 1948 with a $300 gift from his grandmother[44]

Digg, Inc.- Kevin Rose's friend David Prager (The Screen Savers, This Week in Tech) originally wanted to call the site "Diggnation", but Kevin wanted a simpler name. He chose the name "Digg", because users are able to "dig" stories, out of those submitted, up to the front page. The site was called "Digg" instead of "Dig" because the domain name "dig.com" was previously registered, by Walt Disney Internet Group. "Diggnation" would eventually be used as the title of Kevin Rose and Alex Albrecht's weekly podcast discussing popular stories from Digg.

Dillard's - named for William T. Dillard who founded the Arkansas-based department store in 1938

Dixons – commonly used abbreviation for DSG International plc (Dixons Stores Group), a UK-based retailer. The company was founded in 1937 by Charles Kalms and Michael Mindel. When opening their first photographic shop in Southend, they only had room for six letters on the fascia, and chose the name Dixons from the phone book.

DSM – established in 1902 to exploit the Dutch coal mines, the name meaning Dutch State Mines. The last mine closed in 1973, and the company switched to chemicals.

Duane Reade – named after Duane and Reade Streets in lower Manhattan, where the chain's first warehouse was located.[45] The chain was purchased by Walgreens in 2010, but still operates separately.

DuPont – short name for E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company. This American chemical company was founded in 1802 as a gunpowder mill by Eleuthère Irénée du Pont, who left France to escape the French Revolution.[46]

Dynegy – the Natural Gas Clearinghouse changed its name in 1998 to reflect its self-described traits as a dynamic energy company. "Dynergy" had already been taken by a German health foods company.

E. J. Korvette - named for the founder Eugene Ferkauf and his associate Joe Swillenberg; an intentional misspelling of "Corvette". A common urban legend misstates the origin as "Eight Jewish Korean War Veterans".[47]

EA SPORTS – EA is from Electronic Arts. The company was founded in May 1982 as Amazin' Software and changed its name to Electronic Arts in October the same year.

eBay – Pierre Omidyar, who had created the Auction Web trading website, had formed a web consulting concern called Echo Bay Technology Group. "Echo Bay" did not refer to the town in Nevada, "It just sounded cool", Omidyar reportedly said. Echo Bay Mines Limited, a gold mining company, had already taken EchoBay.com, so Omidyar registered what (at the time) he thought was the second best name: eBay.com.

EDS – Electronic Data Systems, founded in 1962 by former IBM salesman Ross Perot. According to the company history:[48] "He chose Electronic Data Systems from potential names he scribbled on a pledge envelope during a service at Highland Park Presbyterian Church in Dallas."

Eidos – named from a Greek word meaning "species". The company became well known for its Tomb Raider series of games.

Eletropaulo – One of the largest Brazilian companies in electricity generation and distribution, its name derives from Companhia de Electricidade de São Paulo.

Embraer – Brazilian aircraft manufacturer, its name is an abbreviation of Empresa Brasileira de Aeronáutica (Brazilian Aeronautics Company).

EMBRAPA – Brazilian state agricultural research and development company, its name is an abbreviation of Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agropecuária (Brazilian Agriculture Research Company).

EMBRATEL – an abbreviation of Empresa Brasileira de Telecomunicações (Brazilian Telecommunications Company). Brazil's largest telecommunications company, it was a state monopoly until 1992 when it was privatized and sold to MCI, then later resold to Telmex.

EMC Corporation – named from the initials of the founders, Richard Egan and Roger Marino. There has long been a rumor that another partner provided the third letter (C). Other reports indicate the C stands for Company. EMC adopted the EMC² notation to refer to Einstein's famous equation, E = mc².

ESRI – Environmental Systems Research Institute, the first geographic information system (GIS) software company founded by Jack and Laura Dangermond in Redlands, California, in 1969

Esso – the enunciation of the initials S.O. in Standard Oil of New Jersey

Evernote – combination of the words forever and note to indicate the core service that the app provides

Exxon – a name contrived by Esso (Standard Oil of New Jersey) in the early 1970s to create a neutral but distinctive label for the company. Within days, Exxon was being called the "double cross company" but this eventually subsided. (Esso is a trademark of ExxonMobil.) Esso could not use its name in parts of the U.S. because of restrictions dating to the 1911 Standard Oil antitrust decision.

F5 Networks – originally F5 Labs – taken from the Fujita scale of ratings for tornado intensity, where F5 is the most intense to be used in normal practice even though the scale can physically describe up to F12 which corresponds to wind velocities of Mach 1.0.

Facebook – name stems from the colloquial name of books given to newly enrolled students at the start of the academic year by university administrations in the US with the intention of helping students to get to know each other better.

Five Guys – American restaurant chain founded by "five guys" – Jerry Murrell and his four sons. The "five guys" would later become the Murrell sons, after Jerry and his wife Janie had a fifth son two years after opening their first restaurant.[51][52]

Fonterra – glosses its own name as "spring from the land".[53] That would match a faux-Latin combination of fons (stem font-) conveying the idea of a fountain or spring, and terra, meaning earth, land, or ground.

Goodyear – named after the founder of vulcanization, Charles Goodyear, the Goodyear Tire and Rubber company was founded by Frank Seiberling in 1898

Google – an originally accidental misspelling of the word "googol", settled upon because google.com was unregistered. Googol was proposed to reflect the company's mission to organize the immense amount of information available online.

Grey Global Group – an advertising and marketing agency supposed to have derived its name from the colour of the walls of its first office

Groupon – chief executive Andrew Mason used the derivation as his five-word acceptance speech at the 2011 Webby Awards ceremony: "It's short for group coupon."[55]

Gucci – named after its founder, Guccio Gucci, who became familiar with high class luggage while working as a lift boy at the Savoy Hotel in London. He returned to Florence and started making travel bags and accessories, founding the House of Gucci in 1921.[56]

H&M – named from Hennes &Mauritz. In 1947, Swedish businessman Erling Persson established Hennes, a ladies' clothing store, in Västerås, Sweden. "Hennes" is Swedish for "hers". In 1968, Persson bought the Stockholm premises and inventory of a hunting equipment store called Mauritz Widforss. The inventory included a collection of men's clothing, which prompted Persson to expand into menswear.

Hispano-Suiza – a former Spanish luxury automotive and engineering firm; its name – literally meaning "Spanish-Swiss" – refers to Spanish origin of the company and Swiss origin of its head engineer Marc Birkigt

Honeywell – from the name of Mark Honeywell, founder of Honeywell Heating Specialty Co. It later merged with Minneapolis Heat Regulator Company and was finally called Honeywell Inc. in 1963.

Hospira – the name, selected by the company's employees, is derived from the words hospital, spirit, inspire and the Latin word spero, which means hope. It expresses the hope and optimism that are critical in the healthcare industry.

Hotmail – Founder Jack Smith got the idea of accessing e-mail via the web from a computer anywhere in the world. When Sabeer Bhatia came up with the business plan for the mail service he tried all kinds of names ending in 'mail' and finally settled for Hotmail as it included the letters "HTML" – the markup language used to write web pages. It was initially referred to as HoTMaiL with selective upper casing. (At one time, if you clicked on Hotmail's 'mail' tab, you would have seen "HoTMaiL" in the URL, but since Hotmail is now Windows Live Mail, it is no longer there.)

HP – co-founders Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard tossed a coin to decide whether their company would be called Hewlett-Packard or Packard-Hewlett. In November 2015, Hewlett-Packard split into two listed companies: HP Inc and Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co.

HTC – A contraction of its original corporate name, High Tech Computer Corporation.

Hudson's Bay Company – in 1670, a Royal Charter granted the lands of the Hudson Bay watershed to "the Governor and Company of Adventurers of England trading into Hudson Bay." The company ceded the territory to Canada in 1870.[58]

Hyundai – connotes the sense of "the present age" or "modernity" in Korean

IG Farben – Interessen-Gemeinschaft Farbenindustrie AG was so named because the constituent German companies produced dyestuffs among many other chemical compounds. The consortium is most known today for its central participation in the World War II Holocaust, as it made the Zyklon B gas used in the gas chambers.

IGN Entertainment – IGN Entertainment is an online entertainment media outlet. Its name comes from its origin as a spin-off of Imagine Media and used to stand for Imagine Games Network.[59]

Iiyama – manufacturer of monitors and TVs, named after the Japanese city, Iiyama

IKEA – a composite of the first letters in the Swedish founder Ingvar Kamprad's name in addition to the first letters of the names of the property and the village in which he grew up: Ingvar Kamprad Elmtaryd Agunnaryd.

Ingenico – electronic payment device manufacturer based in Paris and named from the French Ingenieux Compagnie (Ingenious Company)

Inktomi – an internet search engine, acquired by Yahoo! in 2002; named after Iktomi, a spider-trickster spirit from Lakota Indian legends

Intel – Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore initially incorporated their company as N M Electronics. Someone suggested Moore Noyce Electronics but it sounded too close to "more noise". Later, Integrated Electronics was proposed but it had already been taken, so they used the initial syllables (INTegrated ELectronics). To avoid potential conflicts with other companies with similar names, Intel purchased the name rights for $15,000 from a company called Intelco. (Source: Intel 15 Years Corporate Anniversary Brochure)

Jat Airways – founded in 1927 as "Aeroput" (Airway in Serbian). From 1947, it was known as JAT (Jugoslovenski Aero Transport). After the break-up of the former Yugoslavia (and after Federal Republic of Yugoslavia changed its name to Serbia and Montenegro), the company kept the name, Jat, but not as an abbreviation.

Jawa Motors – from Janeček (the owner) and Wanderer (the motorcycle product)

Johnson & Johnson – originally a partnership between brothers James Wood Johnson and Edward Mead Johnson in 1885, the addition of brother Robert Wood Johnson I led to formal incorporation as Johnson & Johnson in 1887.

Jordache – from the first names of the Nakash brothers who founded the company: Joe, Ralph, David (Ralph's first son), Avi, plus che, after the second syllable of "Nakash"[61]

JVC – Japan Victor Company (Victor Company of Japan, Ltd) was founded in 1927 as a US subsidiary, The Victor Talking Machine Company of Japan, Limited. JVC developed the VHS video cassette format.

Kenvelo - clothing retailer founded in the Czech Republic by Israel-born owner Dany Himi. Various names were proposed to managers, but some said "yes" and some "no". David Dahan came up with yesandno or Ken (yes), ve (and) lo (no) in Hebrew (כן ולא).[62]

Kenwood Electronics – Bill Kasuga was a partner in a firm that imported Japanese-made audio products from Trio Corporation to the United States. Kasuga wanted to create a trustworthy and Western-sounding name for products sold by his importing company as he was confident of the quality of Trio's products in a period when Japanese-made goods were considered subpar. He came up with the Kenwood name inspired by the term "Ken," which had meaning in Japanese and English, also echoing the consumer resonance of Kenmore Appliances and "wood", a reference to the durable substance as well as Hollywood, suggesting entertainment and durability. Trio Corporation would rename itself Kenwood in 1986.

Kenwood Limited – named after Kenneth (Ken) Wood, who founded this kitchenware company in the UK in 1947 with wartime colleague Roger Laurence as Woodlau Industries[63] It is not related to Kenwood Electronics, which started as Kasuga Radio Co in Japan in 1946 and became Trio Corporation in 1960.

Kenworth Truck Company – formed in 1923, named after the two principal stockholders Harry Kent and Edgar Worthington

Kodak – Both the Kodak camera and the name were the invention of founder George Eastman. The letter "K" was a favorite with Eastman; he felt it a strong and incisive letter. He tried out various combinations of words starting and ending with "K". He saw three advantages in the name. It had the merits of a trademark word, would not be mis-pronounced and the name did not resemble anything in the art. There is a misconception that the name was chosen because of its similarity to the sound produced by the shutter of the camera.

Komatsu – Japanese construction vehicle manufacturer named from the city of Komatsu, Ishikawa, where it was founded in 1917

Konica – earlier known as Konishiroku Kogaku. Konishiroku in turn is the short for Konishiya Rokubeiten, which was the first name of the company established by Rokusaburo Sugiura in the 1850s.

Korg – named from the surnames of the founders, Tsutomu Katoh and Tadashi Osanai, combined with the letters "rg" from the word "organ"

Lada – from the name of a Slavic goddess, and used as a trading name by Russian automobile manufacturer AvtoVAZ (АВТОВАЗ in Russian). VAZ is derived from Volzhsky Automobilny Zavod.

Lancôme – began in 1935, when its founder, Armand Petitjean, was exploring the ruins of a castle, Le Chateau de Lancôme (Loir-et-Cher) while vacationing in the French countryside. Petitjean's inspiration for the company's symbol, a rose, was the many wild roses growing around the castle.

Lego – combination of the Danish "leg godt", which means to "play well".[65] Lego also means "I put together" in Latin, but Lego Group claims this is only a coincidence and the etymology of the word is entirely Danish. Years before the little plastic brick was invented, Lego manufactured wooden toys.

Lenovo Group – a portmanteau of "Le-" (from former name Legend) and "novo", pseudo-Latin for "new". This Chinese company took over IBM's PC division.

Lesney Products – Named from the founders Leslie Smith and Rodney Smith, who were school friends but not related. This British company made the Matchbox series of die-cast toys, similar to Dinky toys.[66]

Lexmark – in the 1980s, IBM wanted to spin off its printer and typewriter businesses. The main production facility for this business segment was in Lexington, Kentucky, and the code name for the spinoff was Lexington Marketing.

LG – from the combination of two popular Korean brands, Lucky and Goldstar. (In Mexico, publicists explained the name change as an abbreviation to Linea Goldstar, Spanish for Goldstar Line)

Lionbridge – the word "localisation", which is the service this company offers, is often shortened to L10N. That is the first letter of the word and the last letter of the word, with 10 letters missing in between, hence L 10 N, which looks like lion. Bridge is the second part of the word as translation 'bridges' gap between people and markets that do not have a common language.

Lionhead Studios – games studio named after Mark Webley's pet hamster, which died a week before the company was founded[67] Webley worked for Bullfrog, and co-founded Lionhead with Peter Molyneux, Tim Rance and Steve Jackson in July 1997. Microsoft bought the company in April 2006.

LoJack – "LoJack" (the stolen-vehicle recovery system) is a pun on the word "hijack" (to steal a vehicle).

Longines – in 1862 the new company "Ancienne Maison Auguste Agassiz, Ernest Francillon, Successeur" was born. At that time watchmaking in the area used the skills of people working outside the "comptoir d'établissage", often at home. In 1866 Ernest Francillon bought two plots of land on the right bank of the river Suze at the place called "Les Longines" and brought all of the watchmaking skills under one roof. This was the first "Longines factory".

Lonsdale – boxing equipment manufacturer named after the Lonsdale Belt, a boxing trophy donated by the English Lord Lonsdale.

L'Oréal – in 1907, Eugène Schueller, a young French chemist, developed an innovative hair-color formula. He called his improved hair dye Auréole.

Lucent Technologies – a spin-off from AT&T, it was named Lucent (meaning "luminous" or "glowing with light") because "light as a metaphor for visionary thinking reflected the company's operating and guiding business philosophy", according to the Landor Associates staff who chose the name.[68] It was taken over by Alcatel to form Alcatel-Lucent in 2006.

Ludicorp – named from the Latin lūdere (to play)[69] because the intention was to develop an online game, though co-founders Stewart Butterfield and Caterina Fake developed a successful photo-sharing website. They wanted to call it Flicker, but Fake dropped the "e" when the owner of Flicker.com wouldn't sell them the domain name.[70] Ludicorp sold Flickr to Yahoo in 2005.[71]

Lukoil – from the first letters of the three companies that merged to form the Russianoil giant: Langepasneftegaz, Uraineftegaz, and Kogalymneftegaz, plus the English word "oil"

LVMH – from the initials of the 1987 merger of Louis Vuitton and Moët Hennessy. The former was named after Louis Vuitton while the latter was created in the 1971 merger of two earlier companies, Moët & Chandon (champagne) and Hennessy (cognac).[73]

Mars – named after Frank C. Mars and his wife, Ethel, who started making candy in 1911. Their son, Forrest E. Mars, joined with Bruce Murrie, the son of a Hershey executive, to form M&M Ltd (from Mars & Murrie). Forrest took over the family business after his father's death and merged the two companies in 1964. After retiring from Mars, Inc. in 1993, Forrest founded Ethel M. Chocolates, named after his mother.

Masco Corporation – from the names of the founder Alex Manoogian, Screw and Company. Masco Screw Products Co. was founded in 1929.

Mazda Motor Corporation – the company was founded as Toyo Kogyo, started manufacturing Mazda brand cars in 1931, and changed its name to Mazda in 1984. The cars were supposedly named after Ahura Mazda, the chief deity of the Zoroastrians, though many think this explanation was created after the fact, to cover up what is simply a poor anglicized version of the founders name, Jujiro Matsuda.

MBNA – originally a subsidiary of Maryland National Corporation, MBNA once stood for Maryland Bank, NA (NA itself standing for National Association, a federal designation representing the bank's charter).

MCI Communications – Microwave Communications, Inc. The company later merged with Worldcom to create MCI Worldcom. The MCI was dropped in 2000 and the acquiring company changed its name to MCI when it emerged from bankruptcy in 2003.

Micron Technology – computer memory producer named after the microscopic parts of its products. It is now better known by its consumer brand name: Crucial.

Microsoft – coined by Bill Gates to represent the company that was devoted to microcomputer software. Originally christened Micro-Soft, the '-' disappeared on 3/2/1987 with the introduction of a new corporate identity and logo. The "slash between the 'o' and 's' [in the Microsoft logo] emphasizes the "soft" part of the name and conveys motion and speed."[citation needed]

Midway Games – derived from the name of an airport on the southwestern part of Chicago.

Miele – a German based manufacturer of high-end domestic appliances, founded in 1899 by Carl Miele and Reinhard Zinkann.

Mincom Limited – the company initially created software to specifically assist mining companies and the name Mining 'computing.

Mindfire Solutions - from an analogy that it takes both "mind" and "fire" to become a successful software developer.[77]

Minolta – Minolta was founded in Osaka, Japan in 1928 as Nichi-Doku Shashinki Shōten (日独写真機商店; literally: Japan-Germany camera shop). It was not until 1934 that the name Minolta first appeared on a camera, the Minolta Vest. The name was given by founder Kazuo Tajima due to its similarity to the Japanese term "minoru ta" {稔る田} meaning "growing rice fields", which came from an ancient Japanese proverb that was a favorite of Tajima's mother meaning "the ripest ears of rice bow their heads lowest", and a desire from Tajima to run an innovative, yet humble business.

MIPRO – stands for MIcrophone PROfessionals. MIPRO is a manufacturer of wireless microphones.

MIPS – originally stood for Microprocessor without Interlocking Pipeline Stages. When interlocks where added to a later implementation, the name was redefined to not be an acronym but just a name. (The name also connotes computer speed, by association with the acronym for millions of instructions per second.)

Mitel – from Mike and Terry's Lawnmowers, after the founders Michael Cowpland (see also: Corel) and Terry Matthews, and the company's original business plan

MITRE – Massachusetts Institute of Technology Research Establishment[78][79][80] (however, the MITRE Corporation asserts that its name is not an acronym[citation needed])

Mitsubishi – the name Mitsubishi (三菱) has two parts: mitsu means three and hishi (changing to bishi in the middle of the word) means diamond (the shape). Hence, the three diamond logo. (Note that "diamond" in this context refers only to the rhombus shape, not to the precious gem.)

Morningstar, Inc. – the name is taken from the last sentence in Walden, a book by Henry David Thoreau; "the sun is but a morning star"

Motorola – Founder Paul Galvin came up with this name when his company (at the time, Galvin Manufacturing Company) started manufacturing radios for cars. Many audio equipment makers of the era used the "ola" ending for their products, most famously the "Victrola" phonograph made by the Victor Talking Machine Company. The name was meant to convey the idea of "sound" and "motion". It became so widely recognized that the company later adopted it as the company name.

Mozy – from the words "More Zetabytes for Your Mom". It was initially named "Breakaway Data Services for Your Mom," or "Bdsym".

MRF – from Madras Rubber Factory, founded by K M Mammen Mappillai in 1946. He started with a toy-balloon manufacturing unit at Tiruvottiyur, Chennai (then called Madras). In 1952 he began manufacturing tread-rubber and, in 1961, tyres.

Nestlé – named after its founder, Henri Nestlé, who was born in Germany under the name "Nestle", which is German (actually, Swabian diminutive) for "bird's nest". The company logo is a bird's nest with a mother bird and two chicks.

Netscape – originally the product name of the company's web browser ("Mosaic Communications Netscape Web Navigator"). The company adopted the product name after the University of Illinois threatened to sue for trademark infringement over the use of the Mosaic name. Netscape is the combination of network and landscape.[citation needed]

Nintendo – Nintendo is the transliteration of the company's Japanese name, nintendou (任天堂). The first (nin) can be translated as to "entrusted"; ten-dou means "heaven".

Nissan – earlier known by the name Nippon Sangyo, which means "Japan Industries"

Nokia – started as a wood-pulp mill, the company expanded into producing rubber products in the Finnish city of Nokia. The company later adopted the city's name.

Nortel Networks – named from Nortel (Northern Telecom) and Bay Networks. The company was originally spun off from the Bell Telephone Company of Canada Ltd in 1895 as Northern Electric and Manufacturing, and traded as Northern Electric from 1914 to 1976.

Novell – Novell, Inc. was earlier Novell Data Systems co-founded by George Canova. The name was suggested by George's wife who mistakenly thought that "Novell" meant new in French. (Nouvelle is the feminine form of the French adjective 'Nouveau'. Nouvelle as a noun in French is 'news'.)

Olympus - Japanese company founded as Takachiho Seisakusho in 1919, where Takachiho referred to Takama-ga-hara, the home of the gods in Japanese mythology. It was renamed Olympus Optical Co., Ltd in 1949, after Mount Olympus, the home of the gods in Greek mythology, and then Olympus Corporation in 2003. The company had been using Olympus as a brand name for optical products such as microscopes since 1921.

Onkyo – translates as "sound harmony". The Japanese audio company was founded as Osaka Denki Onkyo K.K in 1946.

Ooyala – the word Ooyala (ఉయ్యల) means 'cradle' in Telugu, as in a "cradle of innovation".

Oracle – Larry Ellison, Ed Oates and Bob Miner worked on a consulting project, code-named Oracle, for the CIA. The project was designed to use the new SQL database language from IBM. When the project was terminated, they decided to finish what they started and market it. Later they changed the name of their company, Relational Software Inc., to the name of the product.

Ornge – new name (2006) for Ontario Air Ambulance, chosen to reflect the orange color of its aircraft. It was intended to provide a unique branding but the ornge.com misspelling was already used by an advertising portal.

PCCW – originally Pacific Century Development, the company's English name was changed from Pacific Century CyberWorks Limited to PCCW Limited on 9 August 2002. It owns Hong Kong Telecom.

Pamida – U.S. retailer co-founded by Jim Witherspoon and named after his three sons: Patrick, Michael and David. Following a merger in 2012, Pamida's 175 stores were rebranded as Shopko Hometown stores or closed.

Pemex – an abbreviation of the full name of the state-owned Mexican oil/gasoline company, Petróleos Mexicanos (Spanish for Mexican Petroleum)

Philco – from the Philadelphia Storage Battery Company. The pioneering U.S. radio and television manufacturer was taken over by Ford and later by Philips.

Philips – Royal Philips Electronics was founded in 1891 by brothers Gerard (the engineer) and Anton (the entrepreneur) Philips

Piaggio – the Italian manufacturer of Vespa scooters and cars was named after its founder, Rinaldo Piaggio.

Pioneer Corporation – In 1938, Nozomu Matsumoto, the son of a Christian missionary, founded Fukuin Shokai Denki Seisakusho ("Gospel Electric Works") to manufacture the A-8 loudspeaker, which he called "Pioneer". The company name was changed to the religiously neutral Pioneer Electronic Corporation in 1961, when it went public. In 1999, the company simplified its name by removing "Electronic".[84]

Pixar – from pixel and the co-founder's name, Alvy Ray Smith. According to the biography "The Second Coming of Steve Jobs" by Alan Deutschman, the 'el' in pixel was changed to 'ar' because 'ar' is frequently used in Spanish verbs, implying the name means "To Pix". Alternatively, "pixarr" is a common abbreviation for "pixel array," an often used term in computer graphics programming.

PMC-Sierra – PMC from Pacific Microelectronics Centre, a research arm of BC Tel, and Sierra from the company that acquired it, Sierra Semiconductor, presumably so named because of the allure of the Sierra Nevada mountains to members of a California-based company.

Porsche – car company named after founder Ferdinand Porsche, an Austrian automotive engineer. The family name may have originated in the Czech name "Boreš" (boresh).

POW! Entertainment – American media production company co-founded by former Marvel Comics editor and publisher Stan Lee in 2001. POW! is commonly used in comic book fights, but it is used as an acroynm (or backronym) in the name POW! (Purveyors of Wonder) Entertainment, Inc.[85]

Prada – an Italian high fashion house named after the founder Mario Prada, who founded Prada in Milan 1914

PricewaterhouseCoopers – global professional services firm named as a result of the merger of Price Waterhouse and Coopers & Lybrand in 1998. It now trades as PwC, although its legal name remains the fully expanded form.

Procter & Gamble – named after the founders, William Procter, a candlemaker, and James Gamble, a soapmaker, who pooled their resources after marrying two sisters. The company was founded in Cincinnati in 1837.[86]

Qantas – from its original name, Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services

Qimonda – an invented name, where the company says: "In Chinese, 'Qi', pronounced as 'ch-ee', stands for breathing and flowing energy, while 'monda' denotes 'world' in Latin-based languages. 'Qi', when pronounced as a hard 'k', suggests 'key to the world', a positive connotation." It filed for insolvency on January 23, 2009.[87]

Quad – an acronym for Quality Unit Amplified Domestic. Quad Electroacoustics was founded in 1936 by Peter Walker, and was formerly called the Acoustical Manufacturing Company.

Reckitt & Colman – named from the merger of Reckitt & Sons with J&J Colman in 1938. Colman's, best known for its mustard, was founded by Jeremiah Colman in 1814. Isaac Reckitt founded Reckitt & Sons in 1840.[90]

Reckitt Benckiser – consumer goods giant named from the merger of Britain's Reckitt & Colman and the Dutch company Benckiser NV in December 1999. The latter was named after its founder, Johann A. Benckiser.

Red Hat – while at college, company founder Marc Ewing was given the Cornelllacrosse team cap (with red and white stripes) by his grandfather. People would turn to him to solve their problems and he was referred to as "that guy in the red hat". By the time he wrote the manual of the beta version of Red Hat Linux he had lost the cap, so the manual included an appeal to readers to return his Red Hat if found.

Repsol – name derived from Refinería de Petróleo de eScombreras Oil (Escombreras is an oil refinery in Cartagena, Spain) and chosen for its euphony when the, then, state-owned oil company was incorporated in 1986. Previously Repsol was a lubricating-oil trademark.

SAP – SystemAnalyse und Programmentwicklung (German for "System analysis and program development"), a company formed by five ex-IBM employees who used to work in the 'Systems/Applications/Projects' group of IBM. Later, SAP was redefined to stand for Systeme, Anwendungen und Produkte in der Datenverarbeitung (Systems, Applications and Products in Data Processing).

Saudi Aramco – the Aramco name was derived in 1944 when California Arabian Standard Oil Company (Casoc) changed its name to Arabian American Oil Company. The Saudi government purchased the company in 1980, and changed its name to Saudi Arabian Oil Company or Saudi Aramco in 1988.[94]

SCB – from Standard Chartered Bank. The name Standard Chartered comes from the two original banks from which it was founded – the Chartered Bank of India, Australia and China, and the Standard Bank of British South Africa.

Sega – Service Games of Japan was founded by Marty Bromley (an American) to import pinball games to Japan for use on American military bases.

Seiko – Seiko, now referred to in katakana as セイコー("seiko"), was originally named in kanji as 精工(also "seiko"). The two characters were taken from the phrase 「精巧で精密な時計の生産に成功する工場」, the company's vision which roughly translates to "a factory（工場:kojyo）that successfully（成功:seiko）produces（生産:seisan）exquisit（精巧:seiko）and precise（精密:seimitsu）watches". – According to Seiko's official company history, titled A Journey in Time: The Remarkable Story of Seiko (2003), Seiko is a Japanese word for "exquisite" or "minute" (both spelled 精巧), as well as a word for "success" (spelled 成功).

Sharp – Japanese consumer electronics company named from its first product, an ever-sharp pencil

Shell – Royal Dutch/Shell was established in 1907, when the Royal Dutch Petrol Society Plc. and the Shell Transport and Trading Company Ltd. merged their operations. The Shell Transport and Trading Company Ltd had been established at the end of the 19th century by commercial firm Samuel & Co (founded in 1830). Samuel & Co was already importing Japanese shells when it set up an oil company, so the oil company was named after the shells.

Siemens – founded in 1847 by Werner von Siemens and Johann Georg Halske. The company was originally called Telegraphen-Bau-Anstalt von Siemens & Halske.

Six Apart – company co-founders Ben and Mena Trott were born six days apart in September 1977. In 2011, the company was taken over by Infocom, a Japanese IT company.[96]

SKF – from Svenska Kullagerfabriken AB, a Swedish manufacturer founded in 1907; see also Volvo

Skoda Auto – the car company was founded in 1895 and originally named Laurin & Klement after its founders, Vaclav Laurin and Vaclav Klement. It was taken over by Škoda Works, an industrial conglomerate, in 1924, and adopted the Škoda name from Emil Škoda. Škoda Auto was split off after World War II and is now part of Volkswagen.

Skype – the original concept for the name was Sky-Peer-to-Peer, which morphed into Skyper, then Skype.[97]

Sony – from the Latin word 'sonus' meaning sound, and 'sonny' a slang word used by Americans to refer to a bright youngster, "since we were sonny boys working in sound and vision", said Akio Morita. The company was founded as Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo KK (Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering Corporation) in 1946, and changed its name to Sony in 1958. Sony was chosen as it could be pronounced easily in many languages.

SPAR – originally DE SPAR, from Door Eendrachtig Samenwerken Profiteren Allen Regelmatig (Dutch, meaning "All will benefit from united co-operation"). "De spar" in Dutch translates as "the fir tree", hence the fir tree logo. As the company expanded across Europe, the name was shortened by dropping the article, "DE".

Sperry – company founded by Elmer Ambrose Sperry (1860–1930), originally as Sperry Gyroscope Company. Sperry took over Univac, and eventually was itself taken over by Burroughs. The merged companies became Unisys, from United Information Systems.

Spiratone – from the last name of founders Fred Spira and Hans Spira. The company was founded as Spiratone Fine Grain Laboratories. The "tone" suffix was common in the photographic industry (an example cited by Fred Spira is Royaltone) at the time of the company's founding in the 1940s.

Sprint – from its parent company, Southern Pacific Railroad INTernal Communications. At the time, pipelines and railroad tracks were the cheapest place to lay communications lines, as the right-of-way was already leased or owned.

Stanley Works – name created to reflect the merger of Stanley's Bolt Manufactory of New Britain, Connecticut (founded by Frederick Trent Stanley) and the Stanley Rule and Level Company (founded by his cousin Henry Stanley)

Starbucks – named after Starbuck, a character in Herman Melville's novel Moby-Dick, also a variation of Starbo; at the time, a local mining camp north of Seattle.[99]

Stellent – coined from a combination of the words stellar and excellent.

STX – pronounced as the word "sticks" because, when first founded, STX manufactured only lacrosse sticks

Subaru – from the Japanese name for the constellation known to Westerners as Pleiades or the Seven Sisters. Subaru's parent company, Fuji Heavy Industries, was formed from a merger of six companies, and the constellation is featured on the company's logo.

Sumazi - social data intelligence company named after its Bangladeshi-American founder Sumaya Kazi.

SuSE – from Software und System-Entwicklung (software and system development). The company was bought by Novell for its Linux distribution.

Suzuki – automotive giant named after its founder, Michio Suzuki. The company started as Suzuki Loom Works in Japan in 1909, and entered the motorcycle market in the early 1950s. It changed its name to Suzuki Motor Co., Ltd in 1954.

TAG Heuer – watch-maker named after Edouard Heuer, who founded Uhrenmanufaktur Heuer AG in Switzerland in 1860[100] It was taken over by TAG Group (Holdings) S.A. in 1985 and branded TAG Heuer in 1999. It is now owned by the LVMH (Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy) conglomerate.

Talgo – from "Tren Articulado Ligero Goicoechea-Oriol" (Spanish for "Goicoechea-Oriol Light Articulated Train"), Goicoechea and Oriol being the founders of the company.

Tama Drums - Tama was the name of the owner's wife, and means "jewel" in Japanese.

TAM Airlines – named from Transportes Aéreos Marília (Marilia's Air Transport). Marília is a city in São Paulo state, Brazil

Taxan – made-up name chosen partly because Takusan is a Japanese word for many or much and was considered propitious, but mainly because the head of the company, in the U.S. at the time, Tak Shimizu was known by everyone as Tak-san.

TCBY – Originally, the company's name was "This Can't Be Yogurt", but a lawsuit from a competitor named "I Can't Believe It's Yogurt!" forced TCBY to create a new backronym for its initials: "The Country's Best Yogurt".

TCL – from Today China Lion. Derived from literal translation of "今日中国雄狮" from Chinese to English.

Textron – this US defense conglomerate was founded as the Special Yarns Corporation in 1923 and later traded as Atlantic Rayon Corporation, when its main business was parachutes. After World War II, it moved into lingerie and other consumer goods, and needed a new name. The company history says: "Atlantic Rayon's advertising agency suggested Señorita Creations, but it was rejected in favor of Textron. The 'Tex' was derived from textiles and the 'tron' came from synthetics such as Lustron."[102] Textron bought Bell Aerospace and the Cessna Aircraft Company, among many others.

Tesco – founder Jack Cohen – who sold groceries in the markets of the London East End from 1919 – acquired a large shipment of tea from T. E. Stockwell. He made new labels by using the first three letters of the supplier's name and the first two letters of his surname.

Teva Naot – outdoors shoe company is named after the modern Hebrew word for 'nature' (pronounced "tehvah")

THY– Turkish Airlines. THY is the abbreviation of Türk Hava Yolları, which means Turkish Air Ways in Turkish.

TIBCO Software – The Information Bus Company. The company was founded by Vivek Ranadive as Teknekron Software Systems in 1985.

Tim Hortons – Canadian fast food doughnut, sandwich and coffee shop named after founder and hockey player Tim Horton. In Canada Tim Hortons is nicknamed "Tim's" and "Timmy's"; in America, the chain is nicknamed "Timmy Ho's". The name was changed from Tim Horton's, dropping the apostrophe, to preclude legal action in Quebec where businesses are obliged to use French language names.[104]

TNT N.V. and TNT Express – Thomas Nationwide Transport, an Australian company which was acquired by the Dutch postal company in 1996. The postal company renamed itself TNT N.V. in 2005. In 2011, TNT N.V. demerged; the express delivery company took the name TNT Express while the postal company renamed itself PostNL.

Toyota – from the name of the founder, Sakichi Toyoda. Initially called Toyeda, it was changed after a contest for a better-sounding name. The new name was written in katakana with eight strokes, a number that is considered lucky in Japan.

Tucows – an acronym for The Ultimate Collection Of Winsock Software.[105]

Tungsram – derived from Tungsten + Wolfram, two variations of the name of the main raw material of the lamp production.

TVR – derived from the first name of the company founder TreVoR Wilkinson

TWA – derived from Trans World Airlines. Before the airline opened up its first international route from New York to Paris in the 1950s, it was a domestic operation that focused on serving Los Angeles and San Francisco from New York, operating under the name Transcontinental and Western Air. Keeping the initials and rebranding as a global airline was a stroke of marketing continuity genius.

Twinings – named after founder Thomas Twining, who set up a tea-shop on the Strand in London in 1706.[106]

Twitter – Having rejected the name Twitch for their social networking service, co-founder Jack Dorsey says: "we looked in the dictionary for words around it and we came across the word 'twitter' and it was just perfect. The definition was 'a short burst of inconsequential information', and 'chirps from birds'. And that's exactly what the product was."[107]

UBS – named from the initials of the Union Bank of Switzerland, which merged with the Swiss Bank Corporation (SBC) in 1998. The initials no longer stand for anything, says the company,[108] possibly because "United Bank of Switzerland" might be confused with the United Bank's subsidiary, United Bank Switzerland.

Umbro – Umbro was founded in 1924 by the Humphrey (Umphrey) Brothers, Harold C. and Wallace.

Unisys – from United Information Systems, the new name for the company that resulted from the merging of two old mainframe computer companies, Burroughs and Sperry [Sperry Univac/Sperry Rand]. It united two incompatible ranges. The newborn Unisys was briefly the world's second-largest computer company, after IBM.

Virb - a play on "verb", representing an action word in order to describe the product's users as "people who create"[109]

Virgin – founder Richard Branson started a magazine called Student while still at school. In his autobiography, Losing My Virginity, Branson says that when they were starting a business to sell records by mail order, "one of the girls suggested: 'What about Virgin? We're complete virgins at business.'"

Vodafone – from Voice, Data, Telefone. Vodafone made the UK's first mobile call at a few minutes past midnight on 1 January 1985.

Volkswagen – from the German for "people's car". Ferdinand Porsche wanted to produce a car that was affordable for the masses – the Kraft-durch-Freude-Wagen (or "Strength-Through-Joy car", from a Nazi social organization) later became known, in English, as the Beetle.

Volvo – from the Latin word "volvo", which means "I roll". It was originally a name for a ball bearing being developed by SKF.

Wachovia – from the Latin version of the German wachau, the name given to a region in North Carolina by Moravian settlers because it reminded them of the Austrian valley of Wachau, through which the Danube River flows. Wachovia Bank was founded in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, which is located in the region.[110]

Waitrose – upmarket UK supermarket chain originally named after the founders, Wallace Waite, Arthur Rose and David Taylor. The "Taylor" was later dropped.

Wonderware – From Wonderful Software - Wonderware was the project code name for the company prior to its launch. Upon making the company a legal entity, the code name was retained as the company name.

Worlds of Wonder – founder Don Kingsborough wanted an eyecatching stock symbol, and Worlds of Wonder provided WOW. The company went bankrupt in 1988.

WPP – global advertising and marketing company founded by Martin Sorrell in 1985. He bought an existing listed company, Wire & Plastic Products PLC, to use as a shell.[113]

WWE – From the company's legal name of World Wrestling Entertainment, adopted in 2002; it began using the initialism as its trading name in 2011. The previous name of World Wrestling Federation (WWF), used since 1979, was changed after a court case brought by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), which is now called the World Wide Fund for Nature.

Xerox – named from xerography, a word derived from the Greek xeros (dry) and graphos (writing). The company was founded as The Haloid Company in 1906, launched its first XeroX copier in 1949, and changed its name to Haloid Xerox in 1958.[114]

XIX Entertainment – XIX is 19 in Roman numerals, so the company is named indirectly after Paul Hardcastle's single 19, and directly derived from 19 Entertainment – see above.

Xstrata – A name for a Swiss global mining and extraction company, formerly known as Sudelektra. The name is derived from the terms "extraction" and "strata" (sedimentary levels). Xstrata became a significant force in the international metals and mining industry. The name was created in 1999 by John Lloyd (graphic designer) of the design consultancy, Lloyd Northover.

XTO Energy – founded in 1986 as Cross Timbers Oil Company, it went public under the stock ticker XTO, and changed its name to XTO Energy Inc in 2001. It is now owned by Exxon Mobil.[115]

Yahoo! – The word Yahoo was invented by Jonathan Swift and used in his book Gulliver's Travels. It represents a person who is repulsive in appearance and barely human. Yahoo! founders David Filo and Jerry Yang jokingly considered themselves yahoos. It's also an interjection sometimes associated with United States Southerners' and Westerners' expression of joy, as alluded to in Yahoo.com commercials that end with someone singing the word "yahoo". It is also sometime jokingly referred to by its backronym, Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle.[116]

Yakult – Official claims state that the name is derived from jahurto, an older form of jogurto, the Esperanto word for "yogurt". However, it has also been claimed that the name is derived from the fact that the product was developed from ancient Mongolian practices of culturing yak's milk in a sack made from a yak's stomach – the combination of Yak and Culture in English giving the product name as "Yakult".

Yamaha – after Torakusu Yamaha, who founded the company as Nippon Gakki Seizō Kabushiki Gaisha (Japan Musical Instrument Manufacturing Corporation) in 1897 after repairing a reed organ. The official name was changed to Yamaha Corporation on 1 October 1987.[117]

Zamzar – based on the main character Gregor Samsa (Gregor Samsa) from Franz Kafka's story The Metamorphosis. Kafka describes a young man who is transformed whilst sleeping into a monstrous verminous bug. A version of the man's name was used as the basis for the company name because of its powerful association with change and transformation.[119]

Zend Technologies – contraction derived from the names of Zeev Suraski and Andi Gutmans, the two founders

Zero Corporation – Founded by Herman Zierold as Zierold Metal Corporation, it is the parent company of Zero Halliburton. In 1952, when then owner Jack Gilbert noticed that many of the company's customers mispronounced and misspelled "Zierold" as "Zero," he changed the name of the company to Zero Manufacturing.[120]

Zimmer – named after Justin O. Zimmer, who co-founded the medical equipment company in Warsaw, Indiana, in 1927.[121]

Zuse – pioneering German computer company named after its founder, Konrad Zuse (1910–1995). He built his first computer in his parents' living room at the end of the 1930s. Zuse was taken over by Siemens AG. The name is now supposedly echoed by SuSE (Software und System-Entwicklung: "Software and system development").

^Mount, Ian (29 May 2005). "The Mystery of Duane Reade". New York. Retrieved 5 February 2009. Founded in 1960 by the brothers Abraham, Eli, and Jack Cohen, Duane Reade started as a three-store health-and-beauty chain that took the name of the two streets that bounded its lower-Broadway warehouse.